Day 24 - Travel

as I ready my steed
the tibetan mountain pony
I see the neighbors
leading similar beasts
to the trailer
the rack
I wave as I ride by
on my way to the trails
and wonder where
they are bound
it's not till I see
them
later
on the trail
that I realize
what they've done

Day 23 - Regret

A.L.G.
I still remember...

She looked me in the eyes
moments after she was born.
I took a title, pledged a vow
to keep her safe and warm.

For all my life I'll wonder

Her parents divorced, her dad remarried,
her mama never changed.
I left the country, her grandparents raised her
in the Nazarene's name.

For all my life I'll wonder

My letters unanswered, my queries ignored,
they kept her from her past.
Three decades later I shed dry tears.
Will I ever meet her at last?

For all my life I'll wonder

Day 22 - Work

this is my first villanelle, so beware

If this day should be my last
would my name be praised?
And would they say a good man passed?

Would some be sad and some aghast,
perhaps wailing from the crazed,
if this day should be my last?

Who would say the die was cast
at dinner while they grazed?
And would they say a good man passed?

Several years before the mast,
decades in the maze.
If this day should be my last...

Looked, and it was vast.
Heard, and it was praised.
And would they say a good man passed?

It shouldn't be done fast,
great works are slowly raised.
...if this day should be my last...
And would they say a good man passed?

Day 21 - "twofer" - a) Haiku - b) Anti-Haiku

a)
when the words are changed
count becomes irrelevant
experience stays

b)
western pride
cannot conceive of a form
not their own

yet the tree
unchecked upon the mountain
is the form

Day 20 - Rebirth

The journey of the Sun
Is the journey of Myth
And the journey of our Soul
By what name do we describe our own path

How small the beings who
Must bring the eternal to their own level
How sad their own rebirth is
Trapped in the walls of another's myth

Is it for us to bend and follow
Or fight our own way
Through the night
To be reborn at dawn

Day 19 - Angry

cat sex music

once again
the same disc
the same song
the overbearing volume
the complete lack
of consideration

my mind wanders
wonders
and I consider
levels of pain to return
but they pale
in comparison

Day 18 - An Interaction

crystal shards
polished
marked
twenty-four symbols
call out from a bag
of silk
the sound of them
moving together
spilling
words
phrases
thoughts
a reality beyond
time
an answer
or more questions